Guyanese officials say they will seek the death penalty for an alleged Venezuelan criminal gang member if he is found guilty of planting a bomb at a petrol station on Sunday that killed a schoolgirl and injured four people.
Police captured Daniel Alexander Ramirez Peodomo at a coastal village on Tuesday, two days after they said that CCTV footage had placed him at a city Mobil Petrol station with a bag containing the explosives that killed a six-year-old girl and hurt four other people.
Deputy Commissioner Wendell Blanhum told a briefing this week that investigators are adamant that they have the right suspect in custody, as “there is no issue about identification. The issue of identification does not exist. The prime suspect was positively identified by one of his accomplices: Moreso, the suspect as was mentioned before confessed to his involvement in this particular crime. There is no issue about identification any longer,” he said. He said eight other persons, including Guyanese nationals, have also been arrested in relation to the bombing.
He reported that the man had arrived in the country illegally by boat on Sunday from Venezuela, bringing the device with a remotely controlled apparatus. He said the suspect had admitted to being a member of the “R” and the feared Sindicato gang, which local security forces had blamed for several gun attacks on Guyanese soldiers in the border Cuyuni Region in recent months.
Sunday’s attack was the latest of three bombings of state and private facilities this year, with previous firebombing attempts at a city police outpost and an electricity generation substation, also in the city. A Guyanese national who police say had assisted a Spanish-speaking individual with the police station incident has been remanded to prison on attempted murder charges.
Minister of National Security Oneidge Walrond said the government will seek the death penalty as Ramirez Peodomo will face terrorism, murder, attempted murder, arson, and malicious damage to property charges in the coming days. “I’m absolutely sure that the commander-in-chief will sign on to it,” she said, referring to President Irfaan Ali, whom she has been briefing on developments. Death penalty convicts are taken care of by hanging, but no one has been hanged since 1997.
To monitor the growing Venezuelan refugee and economic migrant population in Guyana, authorities will soon issue special identification cards to them as a means of tracking the community. All will also have to be registered with the security ministry.
“They will be given a grace period. After the grace period has expired and you do not register and obtain an e-ID card, you’ll be removed from the country, and additional sanctions will be implemented. That is the policy,” Minister Walrond stated.
Relations between Guyana and its western neighbor have deteriorated in recent years due to disputes over the location of land and marine borders.
